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The Supreme People's Court has issued a new draft interpretation outlining the applicable laws and practice when applying for pre-action preservation orders in proceedings involving IP disputes. The draft interpretation deals with various issues, including who is entitled to apply for a pre-action preservation order and which court has jurisdiction to grant the order.

In China, the background section of a patent application does not constitute prior art against the invention claimed to be protected unless it is proved by a prior art document or other prior art evidence. However, applicants should be more cautious if the application is also intended to be filed in other countries.

Following the clarification of filing requirements, the Chinese Trademark Office has defined the examination criteria of sound marks in China. Certain sounds are prohibited from being used and registered as trademarks. These include sounds that are identical or similar to the national anthem of China or other countries and sounds that have an adverse influence.

Since the revision of the Trademark Law in 2014, detailed regulations, judicial interpretations and examination standards have been implemented. This update will focus on how the revised law has been used to tackle bad faith filings and look at the latest trends in such cases.

The State Administration for Industry and Commerce has announced that the examination period for trademark applications has been reduced to 10 months, which is comparable to the time taken by the trademark offices of the United States and Japan.

The National Copyright Administration recently announced that the total number of copyright registrations issued between January and October 2015 reached a record high of 689,700, marking a significant achievement in China’s 12th five-year plan.

The Beijing High People’s Court recently overruled earlier decisions of the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board and the Beijing IP Court to approve the registration of a trademark filed in an unfair manner by an applicant which sought to pre-emptively register an unregistered trademark belonging to a competitor.

A judicial interpretation issued by the Supreme People’s Court has updated the Administrative Procedure Law. Key amendments include stricter rules to tackle habitual complainants and the requirement for administrative personnel to justify their absence from court.

The vice president of China's Supreme People’s Court has warned businesses against abusing the system of well-known trademark protection. He advises all national courts carefully to verify and investigate all evidence and facts filed in support of an application for recognition of well-known status.

The Apology Ordinance is the first apology legislation in Asia and prevents an apology from constituting admission of liability to its maker’s detriment. It enables parties in Hong Kong to use an open apology to resolve disputes.

Since the revision of the Trademark Law in 2014, detailed regulations, judicial interpretations and examination standards have been implemented. This update focuses on how the revised law has been used to tackle bad-faith filings and looks at the latest trends in such cases.

This year, there has been a large reduction in internatonal trademark registration filings. This has motivated the Chinese Trademark Office to launch initiatives to increase awareness of registration among the public.

A Beijing court has ordered a supermarket to pay the Music Copyright Society of China Rmb500 for the unauthorised use of a song in its store. As MerryMart had indirectly benefited from using the song in the supermarket, it was obliged to pay royalties to the copyright owner.

The Beijing First Intermediate People’s Court has granted Ferrero SPA’s appeal against the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board’s refusal to allow Ferrero to extend its three-dimensional (3D) trademark to China. This is the first court decision allowing the registration of a 3D trademark in China.

As a step towards raising the standard of trademark examination and achieving consistency among different examination units, the China Trademark Office recently carried out its first trademark examination quality control inspection. The inspection was considered a success, as a total of 97.45% of sample cases passed the inspection.

The first Chinese law specifically dealing with torts will come into force in July 2010. Article 36 of the new law provides that an internet service provider may be held jointly and severally liable for the infringing acts of a website operator that uses its services. The article's clear wording provides an effective way to deal with IP rights infringement on the Internet.

The number of patent filings by foreign parties in China has grown rapidly over the past five years. While it took more than 20 years for the number of patent filings by foreign parties to reach 500,000 by 2005, this number has doubled in the past five years. This rapid growth indicates that an increasing number of foreign enterprises are interested in exploiting their patent rights in China.

More than 1 million trademarks were filed in China in 2010, a 21% increase on the figures for 2009. This means that the Chinese Trademark Office is the largest recipient of trademark applications worldwide. At present, the number of trademark examinations exceeds the number of new filings, representing a breakthrough for trademark examination in China.

In the second of two instalments regarding the implementation of the 2014 Trademark Law, this update looks at the new examination timelines and how the Trademark Review and Adjudication Board has launched a new online database for decisions.